A prof at the Desautels Faculty, McGill University & an Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College, Oxford University. For the last 10 years I have worked closely with Henry Mintzberg running leadership programs. Before that I was on the faculty from 1995-2000 at Oxford University. +1,500,000 views of my Globe, Forbes and Youtube blog and interviews have been received thus far. I have also taught exec ed at LBS, INSEAD, Cornell, Duke, Darden and Cambridge. On the recent list of Economist Top 30 MBAs, noted that I had taught at 6 of the top 20. Started work in the early 80s and spent 11 years with IBM and Hitachi in sales and management. So at the best of times someone who combines real world experience with academic thinking. 28 refereed journal articles, 10 books, over 1,450 Google Scholar cites, etc.. The book I am currently writing is: Postmodern Management: Working With Under 35 year Olds The Way They Want To be Worked With. I am writing it with a former Accenture consultant who now works at the National Bank. Should be done this year! Follow me on Twitter:profkjmoore, subscribe to me on Facebook, to Circle me on Google+

Euro 2012 - What It Takes To Win

The Euro 2012 tournament is coming to an end with 4 strong semifinalists: Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy. No surprises here. But we think what really sets apart the top teams is their ability to manage their emotions.

When we look carefully into the reasons behind their success, it is easy and appropriate to attribute it to the talent factor and physical fitness, yet many of the teams have these. We believe that there is often an important hidden factor that contributes to a team’s strong performance. This is the team’s emotional intelligence (generally known as the ability to identify, assess, and control the emotions of oneself, of others, and of groups) which often come from real maturity and learning from your experience in the world of football/soccer.

We believe that the semifinalists were able to win against rival teams by being able to apply strong emotional intelligence techniques. A good example is Italy’s recent win against England on penalty kicks. While Italy was behind with one missed penalty kick, the team was able to turn things around through its most experienced player Andrea Pirlo, who did so audaciously chipping a kick past England’s keeper from the penalty spot. This brought the confidence back to the Italian squad, and shook the confidence of the English team, resulting in two consecutive missed penalties from England. The new confidence imbued with faith in themselves and the Italian team went on to score crucial penalties and qualify to play against Germany in the semifinals.

The same inclination was witnessed when the German team played Greece in the 1st quarter final, and while the Greek team was very eager to win against Germany, the German team controlled the game through the intelligent use of balanced emotions combined with the physical fitness/talent. This can be exemplified by the mental strength of the German team to bounce right back after conceding the equalizing goal and take full control of the game. Greece appeared to have lost all hope after Germany went up 2-1.

On a club level, the top tier clubs can claim to have the best players from around the world, yet Barcelona’s dominance in the past few years distinguishes the club from the rest. The difference between the Catalan club and the rest of the teams can be attributed to the manager’s ability to manage. He has the rare quality of being able to motivate his players to unite and work towards a single objective. Tactics certainly play a part in their winning formula, but Pep Guardiola’s knack for being able to control his players’ emotions in a positive manner should be seen as critical.

A major soccer match, especially at the international level of a Euro or World Cup tournament often ends up being an emotional roller coaster. It is not always the case that the team who scores first wins, but rather the team that can successfully handle the emotional turmoil of giving up a goal, relinquishing a lead, or trying to hold on to a lead. Mental toughness can be loosely defined as the ability to play with a normal or greater amount of talent and proficiency under adverse conditions and in pressure situations. Emotional Intelligence goes beyond this, as players on these international sides must manage their own emotions as well as being able to identify, assess, and work with the emotions of their teammates and the team as a whole, all while being under the weight of an entire nation’s hopes and expectations. The semifinalists have all displayed tremendous ability in this category, while teams like Russia and England with arguably just as talented sides fell apart when put into difficult circumstances.

In reflecting back over the games of the Euro 2012 that we have witnessed thus far, the winning formula for a consistent performance is a combination of talent, in-game fitness and intelligence and most importantly controlled and effective use of emotions.

We believe that business leaders must also understand and embrace this same winning formula. To be an effective manager and build a successful corporate team executives cannot simply put the most talented people in the room or try to develop the most efficient business processes. Difficult economic times add extra stress to the work environment and put pressure on a company and all of its employees in much the same way as being down by a goal adds pressure to a team in a Euro match. This means that emotions are likely playing a greater role in the workplace now more than ever in recent years. When Karl was working at IBM in the 80s and 90s, when emotion reared its’ “ugly head” in a meeting we would take a coffee break. Emotions were not usually part of the formula; it was about the facts and having a mean spread sheet. Today we have matured. Thanks to Postmodern thought emotions are seen now as almost as important as analysis, in some cases as more important.

Companies that push emotions out of their corporate culture, claiming that they do not belong in business, will more than likely find it difficult to emerge successfully during these crisis and high-stress moments.

Effective managers do not flee from emotions or ignore them. To get the best performance out of your team emotional intelligence is required. This means mental toughness from the individual and a sincere effort to identify and assess the emotional responses of employees and team members to assist those who are struggling and to play off each others’ strengths and weaknesses. Emotional Intelligence not only works to bring a team together as a more functional and effective unit, but also takes advantage of an often overlooked component to team leadership that will cause organizations deficient in it to crumble. The semifinalists in the Euro 2012 Tournament understand this, and the effective business manager understands how vital it is to a successful leadership strategy.

Ismail Albaidhani is Head of Global Partnership at the International Air Transport Association in Montréal. Austin Anderson is a recent McGill BCom graduate and was captain of the this year’s McGill varsity football team.

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